She represented the youngest face of victimhood and resilience to the onslaught of a violent state in a little known tribal village of Vachathi in 1992.
On Tuesday, led by the Tamil Nadu Tribals Association (TNTA) and the Communist Party of India (Marxist), Veni* and the people of Vachathi launched a sit-in outside the Collectorate here, demanding that the State government pay compensation to the victims, as ordered by court, under the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989.
The incidents at Vachathi, the tribal hamlet of Paapireddypatty in Harur taluk, marked a watershed in the semantics of state violence. On June 19, 1992, forest and revenue personnel entered the Malayallee tribal village on an anti-smuggling raid and vandalised homes, brutalised women and destroyed livestock. Eighteen women were raped.
Two decades later, on September 29, 2011, the District and Sessions Court convicted all 269 government personnel accused in the case and sentenced 215 of the surviving accused to various terms of imprisonment. Among those were 17 men convicted for mass rape, and over 105, including 74 women, for other offences.
Three years since the verdict, the people of Vachati are yet to receive compensation under the Act, says Dilli Babu, CPI(M) MLA for Harur. The court also ordered the State to pay a compensation of Rs.15,000 to each of the 18 rape victims. Till date, the non-payment of compensation under the Act aside, no compensation was paid to the rape victims, says Mr. Babu.
“We announced a protest in July, but withdrew it on an assurance from the Minister for Adidravidar Affairs in the Assembly that the pending Rs.1.47 crore would be disbursed soon. “I personally handed over the letter to the Chief Minister and believed that compensation would have been sanctioned, but nothing happened,” Mr. Dilli Babu says.
According to TNTA State president P. Shanmugam, three rounds of talks were held, but no announcement was made. “We have reasons to believe that the papers are deliberately stalled.”
Picked up, raped and brutalized, Veni*, who was 12 year old at that time, spent one-and-a-half months in the Salem Central Prison. She’s aware that nothing can retrieve her lost childhood. “I was in Class VII. I spent one-and-a-half months in the Salem jail, while others spent three months,” she says.
“Each time we are forced to take to the streets, we are forced to relive those terrible hours. We are scarred over and over again,” says Ambika*, who was 18 years when assaulted.
Earlier, the protesters returned unsatisfied after a brief meeting with District Revenue Officer Shankar, who had promised them that he would convey their demand to the government. Late on Tuesday evening, people of Vachathi continued to stay at the protest venue till an announcement was made by the government.
(*names of victims changed)
